adhar wrote:Terra wrote:adz2.0r wrote:I want to get the Pioneer AVIC-F900BT HU I can get it for $1700 with reverse camera, but i was thinking of getting some 3 ways and another amp for my sub (maybe another sub) so might be able to reduce price a bit more if i buy all that.
I already have speakers and amp from my old car, but i might sell them to a mate and buy better ones, i really want MB Quart 3 ways and a good quality amp like Rockford or something, they sound mint.
When I was looking around for a double DIN HU earlier this year, I have to say that the Pioneer AVIC-F900BT was the 1st one that came to mind. I liked it's
overall looks, the fact it has GPS, no motorised front panel, plays most formats and bluetooth. Just as well I knew of a good car stereo place that would allow me to spend a couple of hours with playing with their demo unit. It didn' take long to realise that this unit has way too many flaws. The things that really put me off buying this unit are ->
1) Bluetooth is very flakey - has many and varied issues trying to pair up with almost any type/brand of smartphone that has bluetooth ( I tried pairing up my Palm centro on 4 different AVICs at 4 differnt Pioneer dealers, with different versions of firmware updates on the AVIC and they all failed, but with different issues - ranging from refusing to pair up at all, not even finding my device to pairing with errors and then working once and stops working, to locking up the AVIC to the degree that the HU had to be factory reset or rebooted.
2) The AVIC doesn't have an OFF button and is always kind of in standby but on mode.
3) Even with the latest firmware revision, the HU takes over 20 seconds to boot up and this boot time varied from unit to unit that I tested
4) GPS is proprietry, meaning that mapping updates wouldn't be as easy to obtain as other units that may use GARMIN type maps, TOM TOM or WhereIS
I really like Pioneer equipment and have a lot of their home AV stuff that works brilliantly, so I'm not one of those brand haters, but I have to say that I was
really disappointed to discover all these failings of the AVIC as my heart was really set on getting it when it first become available in Oz. It's been 6 months since this model was released and I even went back to the Pioneer dealer recently to see if they have resolved some of these issues, but it seems not.
Through personal first hand experience, I can happily recommend the Kenwood and Eclipse double DIN models that also have these features that the AVIC comes with.
Maybe some of the issues I've highlighted may not be of concern to others, but at the very least go along to a place where they have a demo unit installed on a board and test that everything you need to work reliably for does in fact work for you and ensure the place you purchase from has good after sales support.
Cheers,
Lok